My first Buffalo Painting

This is my first attempt at the buffalo from my Tall Grass Prairie drive last week. Hopefully I'll get better!



The paint is still to wet to get more detail and shape on the buffalo, but I'm liking the beginning.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Practice

I have been practicing like crazy and taking this opportunity before Baby Nacho, grand baby #3, arrives on September 28. I know this because you ask? Because we do C sections.

Daniel sent me a photo of this still life to practice on. When I looked at it I thought it would be too hard, but it ended up being easier than I thought. I have such a tendency to overwork paintings and while I know I did that to this one, I really liked the way the flowers turned out. I was very loose with them and just dabbed the different values of yellow in order to get the effect of a snap dragon.

Here's the final product



I also set up a Still Life of tomatoes. The background isn't really this light, it's more of a golden yellow.


Now I am off to find something else to paint. Possibly the picture of the buffalo I took on the Tall grass Prairie drive.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

My Rookie Painter Challenge

Somebody likes Onions on this blog and so do I.


Here's my rendition of their posted challenge

Lesson 2 with Daniel Edmonson

I've been busy this week and haven't been able to post. I'm in Pawhuska and trying to get some things done up here before winter and before the new baby gets here.

I did manage to get a painting done this week, and I am starting on another after this post.


the pic didn't come out that well and I still have some changes to make to it after its been critiqued by the man himself.

While here this week I have done some fun things. Saturday I brought the girls to Pawhuska with me and we went to the Pawhuska County Fair. They had a ball on the Jumpers.



Then we came to the house and they played outside on one of their old slides they've had forever.







so, as you can see, I have had a fun filled week.

Monday I decided to take a drive out to see the Tall Grass Prairie. That was fun as well here are a few pics I took on the 20+ mile drive:







Doesn't this dead tree look like a Kokopelli?







The shadow you see is nothing paranormal, only a smeared dead bug on the windshield!




Check out the mom and baby, this was a surprise, I had pulled up to a bridge and got out to take pics of the stream. I didn't see these guys until I saw something move in my camera so I zoomed in as best I could.





Here was an interesting truck. A pic for a possible future painting.



And how about some of the wild Mustangs that some of the cattle ranchers are housing for the Government. They are very spooky so they were about to break and run.









Hope you enjoyed my trip to Osage County and the pics I took on the Tall Grass Prairie. It is so dry its not that pretty, but you get an idea of the vastness and what they have to offer.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Pawhuska,United States

Carol Marine loses home!

I was just reading my email and found that a wonderful artist I follow, has lost her home in Austin. They had only a few minutes notice to try and retrieve what she could. Please remember everyone who has lost their homes in this fire.

Check out Carol Marine's link to the right in Blogs I Follow.

Help for our Good Friends


Karin Jurick posted this link on her site. It is a friend's account of what happened at the time of evacuation:

Hi everyone,
Carol and David and their 6 yr. old son Jacob lost their home in a terrifying fire yesterday out near Bastrop. Their entire subdivision was wiped out (up to 300 homes) and the fire is still spreading – it’s currently 16 miles long, 6 miles wide, has covered over 30,000 acres and is moving south towards another town. Today’s forecast of more high winds is bad news for surrounding areas. [UPDATE: A neighbor confirmed late Monday afternoon that nothing of their home survived. It's just dirt and ashes.]
They lived in a cute, little house in the middle of a beautiful pine forest, which is kind of an aberration in Texas. Rolling hills, tall towering trees, orange pine needles everywhere on the ground. All of which made for a lot of tinder, due to an extreme drought and the highest temperatures ever recorded in the state for August.
Here’s an older picture of their house right after they bought it, before they added on a woodshop and studio for Carol. Jacob is a bit bigger now:

My 16 yr. old daughter Maddie and I were visiting them, along with two of Carol’s friends, Karen and Randi. We were sitting around their big table, swimming in beading supplies, laughing, talking–when a neighbor came over and told us we had to leave right away.
At first, Karen and I went out to the backyard to see and were making jokes about how David had paid off a neighbor to say that, just to get all these crazy women out of his house. We couldn’t see anything over the tall trees. Then Randi went out front and we heard her saying, “Oh my god. Oh my god!”
When we stood in the front street, we could see huge clouds of billowing smoke. There wasn’t even enough time for them to take more than their computers. I backed my car through their front yard and up to Carol’s studio, but we didn’t take anything more than a few small paintings of Carol’s. They lost all her art that filled their house.
Carol took their small car and David hooked up their pick-up to their camper, so luckily they have that. They’re currently in a campground and will have to decide where to go from here….
When we finally left, the smoke had changed to black and was much bigger. It was incredibly frightening. Here’s a video that someone shot on YouTube:

They had good insurance, but it will take time for that to all kick in, so I’d like to help them in the meantime.
Please consider making a donation below to help them get back on their feet.

.
It’s true, the most important thing is that they’re safe. They are my family and I love them all dearly. But my heart aches for everything they lost – all the mementos, all the memories, their sense of sanctuary.
Thanks for your help. And please say prayers for everyone that lost their house, dear pets, or is still in harm’s way.
With love,


~ Thank you all

Day 4 of painting

Still working on this little jewel, leaving it on the easel for a couple of weeks and will come back to it..

Going on another road trip for a few weeks, but I have taken my paints with me so will see what I get done.

Practice

I have been practicing like crazy and taking this opportunity before Baby Nacho, grand baby #3, arrives on September 28. I know this because you ask? Because we do C sections.

Daniel sent me a photo of this still life to practice on. When I looked at it I thought it would be too hard, but it ended up being easier than I thought. I have such a tendency to overwork paintings and while I know I did that to this one, I really liked the way the flowers turned out. I was very loose with them and just dabbed the different values of yellow in order to get the effect of a snap dragon.

Here's the final product





I also set up a Still Life with some fresh tomatoes



Well now that I've written this post for a second time we'll see if this blogger press is going to work!

Day three of painting

I should have known it was going to be a bad day when I took my Dog Ace's medicine at the same time as mine! OMG I keep his antibiotic with my blood pressure mess and got side tracked and walked by my water and just popped them all and swallowed. Called the vet to see if I would surely die from a reaction to penicillin or asprin and after we all has a good laugh, and some teasing she told me I would live, but I would have to come and get Ace some more medicine!

After that I went to check on my email and low and behold the Internet was down. Nothing worse than going round and round with the cable people and they tell you it will be a week, then someone else calls you back and tells you their techs were just working on it and it's back up and running! No communication!

Thank goodness this week is almost over because it has been the week from Hades. I didn't even mention that my daughter went into early labor and had to go to the labor and delivery triage. She had gotten too hot and was dehydrated which started her contractions for 5 hours then they had to give her meds to stop the contractions.

So folks I am ready to get this week over with, go watch some Oklahoma State Football and stay at our house in Pawhuska for a few weeks! I'm taking my paints and my IPad and camera and hopefully Ace and I will get some painting done!

Here is what I was working on:

Open to critiques.